Isles of Scilly October 15th-20th 2007
15th October 2007
Crashed out at Seth's and was woken just slightly Seth was awake and running about getting the final bits and pieces together....had a good journey down to Penzance stopping off the once only, and headed straight for the ticket office to claim our tickets for the Scillonian......all was in hand until time drifted off..as did our boat...we missed the boarding by 10minutes, our bags didn't though!!! sixty odd quid later..we had managed to purchase single flights from Lands End but could not fly til 3pm!! So as we had completley balls'd up the first part of the holiday, we decided to get some birding therapy and headed to Nanquidno in the hope of seeing a Radde's Warbler, that had been seen in the area the previous day...we found the area ok....via Lands End airport(would not be the first time I see this place today) and spoke with a few other birders that had been searching all morning but with no luck....we decided to give the area a good bash anyway....but apart from a Spotted Flycatcher, a couple of Blackcap's, a heard Firecrest and several Chiff-chaffs there wasn't too much around....so the day was just getting better for us!!! We gave up and drove back to Penzance, I have to admit I was a bit nervous....not about the flying but the fact Seth had been driving a while 'on the red' and with the way things had started today I was quietly fearing the worst! We got lunch at a fish + chip shop(cannot remember what it was called)but was bang opposite the main car-park on the harbour-front in Penzance....dead good food and not too typically touristy expensive....so thumbs up to this gaff! We met our transfer to the airport and after watching a safety video we was boarding the skybus....this was gonna be an experience and a half on it's own....there was a maximum of eight of us on this plane and me and Seth were at the front!When I mean at the front, I mean the only thing between us and the cockpit was the pilot....madness!!The plane was tiny, but comfortable and took of and was soon heading over-sea to Scilly....somewhere where we should have been already!!As we headed over-sea you could make out the Gannets flying around below...Seth later had an Great Skua fly under the plane..then after around 20minutes in the air we were descending on St Marys airfield and had a safe and pleasant landing! No-hanging around here the bags were quickly off and we were off.....the airport bus service dropped us where we wanted to be...Pungies Lane for the reported Rustic Bunting.......
I am gonna re-name this day...as Monday the 13th....as nothing went was going for us....we arrived at the Rustic Bunting sight to be greeted with the news that the bird had not been seen since 10.30am!!
Well we had the attitude that the bird was out there still somewhere and set-about checking the Chaffinch flocks/fields nearby etc in the hope of re-discovering the bird.....but to no avail!! By this time we had met up with Danny and he informed us that the site for the Grey-Cheeked Thrush was on the way back..so we checked there....again.....no luck.....I was willing just to get to our digs and write the day off....but we were determined to turn our luck before the days was out by trying also for the 'Wilsons Snipe'....checked the field where it was reguarly seen but again....no bird!!We headed back rather glum to our digs which were on 'the garrison' and was re-united with our luggage that had been dropped off kindly for us! We met up with Chris and Simon here who were two volunteers for the wildlife trust....got showered up and headed for the Scillonian club for roll-call.....which believe it or not....we almost missed!!
Tuesday October 16th 2007
Woke early'ish and headed straight out to explore the garisson....the early morning rain had petered out into a few light spots...several Meadow Pipit's, a Skylark and a Northern Wheatear were on the cricket pitch..a pipit sp..sounded like a Tree Pipit to me buzzed overhead and over the pines...another birder mentioned a possible Olive-backed Pipit....we ended up further down the garrison to the area where the Blackpoll Warbler favoured.....a couple of other birders were on the same mission as us...and luckilly within 5 minutes one of them had re-found the bird a little further up from where we were looking! as soon as I lifted the bins up to feast my eyes on the bird the heavens opened....but didn't stop from enjoying views of my first Blackpoll Warbler.....the bird showed well on and off and we even took shelter from the rain in someones garage!!from this shelter we saw the bird even better before it flew overhead and behind us...we were greeted by a few locals with one gentleman informing we were standing in the chemist shop owners garage...he said that he would not mind at-all and discussed the Blackpoll Warbler with us etc....with that the owner returned and by now we felt we out-stayed our welcome.....but the owner said that it was totally ok and to stay as long as we want!!we decided to move on anyway...and after a quick pastie stop we moved on.....we decided to try the airfield first...as we headed up towards the incenerator we noticed a few birders gathered looking into the small ploughed field to our right.....a quick look through the birds Seth picked out a Little Bunting that was feeding close-by with Chaffinch's...looking a little bit tatty purely because the poor little thing was as exposed as us!!!! So perhaps our luck was changing and we stumbled across the Little Bunting....my third in the U.K.
We headed upto the airfield and Seth put us onto distant views of the Short-toed Lark...my first in the U.K, although have seen them in Cyprus and Spain....again this bird was suffering in the weather conditions and promised I would come back on a better day to get scope views! By now the rain was more consistent and we were pretty wet! We were hardly best dressed for the occassion but we were on a roll and kept going....if I remember rightly we headed for the Lower Moors next and instantly got onto the Wilson's Snipe which was with 4 Common Snipe....the atmosphere was getting a bit tense in the hide as several birders could not get onto the bird in their scopes...i think that it is called twitchy...and a few exchanges of sarcasm were thrown about....before all ending in laughter...well for us anyway.....I never did get any bets you know despite running a book on who would win the fight!! the book was ready! The bird showed well and 5 Greenshank showed well also...although it was raining the light was pretty good for photography. We left the circus behind, and headed for Porth Hellick to dry out in one of the hides....the rain cleared but then persisted again....this stuff was in for the day!A few Water Rails were seen and a couple of Grey Wagtails flying about...then a couple of birders arrived in the hide to say they had just seen the (2nd)Blackpoll Warbler a bit further along the track.....we decided to investigate...another birder tagged along....walking along the track I noticed this slightly stocky green bird flying towards me before ditching into the cover to my right.....I called I had something to Seth and the other birder behind me and within seconds Seth was on the bird...it was the Blackpoll alright..flitting rather clumbsily through the canopy...until coming out to have a look at us and showing down to ten feet!!! 'wow' I was thinking to myself..the garrison bird showed well but this was amazing....this bird was a lot cleaner/brighter bird...but there again also looked drier!So there you go..not only do you see a lifer in a day...you see two of the same species in different locations.....good stuff!!! We were certainly striking lucky today...the bird eventually flighted across the pathway into dense woodland and eventually dropped out-of view....we had a deseved hot jacket potato at Longtones restaurant/craft centre...and admired several photo's that were on offer on the Rare Bird Alert website.....we were pretty wet through by now and our notebooked/bins etc were in a bad state!again we carried on and en-route to our digs we finally managed to get brief flight views of the Grey-Cheeked Thrush and a Black Redstart at Harrys Walls was a nice year-tick....so although a very wet day....it proved to one of our more productive of the whole trip!
Wednesday October 17th 2007
We decided to take the boat(again another first for me)! over to Treco....all squashed on(see below) we were ready to go for the 1st winter Blyth's Pipit that had been found the day before!
We were on the boat without even knowing if the bird was still present this morning but I guess we just followed our instincts and we were on the first boat over....about ten minutes into the journey news broke that the bird was still present....there was a lot of birders heading over for this one...which if I connect would be another lifer!We arrived on Tresco....and on leaving the boat it suddenly dawned on me to step up a gear and get to the site....'because birds have wings you know'!!Manged to follow the crowds and got to the school area and set-up scope and tried to locate the bird in the bins....the guy next to me said he was on the bird and gave accurate directions as to where the bird was and when in view!!by now panic set-in but this guys directions were spot-on and was enjoying my first views of Blyth's Pipit!It was moving in and out of the tall grass giving good views at times and dissappearing for other periods...eventually the bird flushed and was seen in flight until perching on top of some brambles........as per my poor record shots below
At was at this point the local school children arrived with buckets asking for donations...the bird was apparantley found by one of the school teachers and had also arranged for the children to stay indoors so not to flush the bird...so for me it was an excellent cause...although I did witness one birder contribute 2p.....I am sure you are not shocked by this!!
I heard they raised in the region of £200-300 so well done guys...see if you can spot yourself below!
We took a fairly steady walk back acroos Tresco to get the 12.30 boat back to St Marys.....we were literally 10mins offshore when news broke of a Radde's Warbler also on Tresco.....oh well.....u cannot see them all!
Taken from Tresco looking at Bryer
Arriving back at St.Marys we headed straight for the airfield where we located the Short-toed Lark again, this time showing well, gaining excellent views in the scope, feeding with 4 Skylarks. 2 Clouded Yellow butterflies were also seen in the area and 2 Greenland Wheatears. A female Merlin caused a stir as it flashed across the airfield.
Thursday October 18th 2007
Stayed on St.Mary's today and we managed to bird a large part of the island. We decided to head for Newford duck pond with the hope of seeing the male Red-breasted Flycatcher that had been found the day before. We managed to get a bus there, suprisingly, arriving on site, there was quite a numerous crowd present. The bird had been seen, but at first was proving to be rather elusive, but eventually managed to see the bird well as it flitted among the trees around us. Smart bird and another lifer for me, the bird still had a lot of it's summer plumage, I always imagine a young 1st winter bird or a female as my first Red-breasted Flycatcher, so was nice to get this stunning male. Walking around the area, we found the site where a juvenille Woodchat Shrike has been seen, again this bird performed well in the autumn sunshine(see photo's below). On our travels we also saw 2 Firecrest's and 3 Ravens, a couple of Black Redstarts were also seen. We also checked the airfield seeing the Short-toed Lark yet again, but we failed to see the Lapland Bunting that had been seen here on and off.
Woodchat Shrike - St.Mary's - Isles of Scilly
Friday October 2007
This was our last full-day on Scilly, so we decided to jump on another boat and head to Bryher. The boats trips here cost around £7 return, the boat that goes to Bryher generally goes to Tresco aswell, the boat was full, but most birders got off at tresco, no doubt trying for the Blyth's Pipit. Only one other birder jumped off the boat at Bryher with us...we were visiting here hoping to see the Blyth's Reed Warbler that had been present for a while now. We eventually found the area where the bird had been seen previously and there were other birders searching by a derelict house. As viewing was restricted here, we walked to the bottom of the area and scanned up into the area, getting a different angle. The birders we had just left at the top had not seen the bird, within ten minutes we were onto the bird, managing to get scope views as it flitted low in vegetation. Seth rang the news through to Rba, within minutes, all the birders from the top were down where we were, rather anxiously trying to get a view, which they had missed. The bird showed again, the dissappeared, then showed again briefly. We left the other birders to it and checked out the fields behind this area, there were 20+Fieldfares in this area, but two birds flew up from the fields, 2 Woodlarks....not a bad find on Scilly. A Merlin was also seen, Bryher was dead, there's hardly any civilisation here, great if you wanna get away from the crowd on St.Marys. So Blyth's Reed Warbler was another lifer for me, but not for Seth, he had seen one recently, as far away as Northumberland. We done some more birding in the afternoon at Lower Moors and saw my second Red-breasted Flycatcher of the trip, a smart ist winter bird seen from the trail, also a Jack Snipe was seen from the hide, my first Jack Snipe of the year.
View from Bryher looking across water at Tresco
It was our final night, so we went out a little earlier and started in the Mermaid in Hugh town, then a couple of other pubs before going to our final role call....spending our cash on photo's and I re-signed up for a rare bird alert pager, really handy gadget to have especially when you are on Scilly for a week. After the role-call, we went to the Porthcressa and it's famous disco, i think the only reason why it is famous on scilly is because it is the only one! A few pints of Rattler were had throughout the night...after a pretty intense week it was time to let our hair down...Danny done this by dancing all night in his pirates outfit.
Saturday October 20th :
We all woke....eventually, quickly packed and headed off to the boat to drop our luggage off, talking to Chris at the woolpack before we left, admiring a Black Redstart in the gardens of where we had stayed. We chilled out for the day as there was not much around, the place seemed to be a lot quieter with many birders already left. We said farewell to the pirate, that was it, our time on Scilly was at an end. There were a few highlights on the trip back with c40 Bottlenose Dolphins seen, 2 Arctic Skuas and 2 Puffins. We stayed in Penzance overnight, deciding to grab a bed and breakfast called Honeydew guest house next to the longboat hotel, wanting to watch the rugby world cup final, England v South Africa in which we unfortunatley lost. We had a comfortable stay at this family run bed and breakfast, really reccommend staying here telephone Emma on 01736364206 to book or make enquiries, before making our way back on the Sunday. By now my knee had swelled up...and was rather painful....we still stopped of at a site near Truro to see a American Golden Plover. We found the bird in a ploughed field with c200 European Golden Plovers. The bird was more active and wary than the others, good bird to finish up the trip with.
Birding Highlights
This was my second trip to the Isles of Scilly, the time previous was just a day-trip. It was a totally new experience for me and is a trip that I have alsways wanted to do. I koved the whole experience of trudging the islands, spending your time birding, pretty much everything is done on foot. The role call in the evenings is something I have heard about, I really did not imagine it to be such a busy, sociable evening event. The boat journey on the Scillonian III is something worth doing alone, managed to see caetaceans and sea-birds ftom this ship. Seth had been to these islands many times before and Dan had stayed here all summer, so their knowledge of the islands proved in-valuable to helping make it a successful trip. The weather for the week was generally good with one day of persistant rain, which proved out most productive day.
I managed to see six UK lifers on this week which were as follows
Blackpoll Warbler : 2 of this species seen, one at the Garrison, with the other at Lower Moors
Wilson's Snipe : One of the species was seen with Common Snipe at Lower moors
Blyth's Pipit : A 1st winter bird was seen near New Grimsby on Tresco
Blyth's Reed Warbler : A single bird seen on Bryher
Red-breasted Flycatcher : 2 birds seen, 1 adult male at Newford duck pond, 1 1st winter bird at Lower moors
Short-toed Lark : A single bird seen on several days on St.Mary's airport
Greenland Wheatear - St.Mary's airfield
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